Randy Susan Meyers's Blog, page 9

Waisted Launch May 21: How The Book Begins

  If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies and eaten alive. —AUDRE LORDE (epigraph for Waisted) Chapter One // Alice Everyone hated a fat woman, but none more than she hated herself. Today’s proof? She, along with six other substantial women stood in the parking lot avoiding…

WAISTED SNIPPET: BUTTER, PLEASE

  Days till launch: 6 Times I convinced myself one cracker wouldn’t matter: 26 Times I convinced myself chewable vitamin C tasted just like candy: 2 Sitcoms watched: Too many   Todays’ Snippet from Chapter 26 Cooking no longer brought pleasure. Tonight she broiled salmon, steamed broccoli, and mashed squash, boiling a side of pasta…

Snippet of the Day: Where do M&M’s Lodge?

Nine days till launch Yesterday: Mother’s Day Bagels consumed: One (gutted) with cream cheese and butter (and, of course, lox) Poppy seed cookies: One. Large. Very. Chocolate Babka: One slice. Large. Not very. Snippet from Chapter 3 Experience had taught Alice that M&M’s lodged first in her belly and then attached themselves to her thighs. She needed…

WAISTED SNIPPET OF THE DAY: No Stabbing

Thirteen days till launch Crackers with peanut butter & strawberry jam jammed into mouth? Three. Large ones. Number of extra spoonfuls of jam? Not telling. ***** From Chapter Six Mirrors, ubiquitous and omnipresent, reflected Daphne’s every angle, guaranteeing that while painting wounds on actor Terrance Fields’s arms—he of woman-hating fame, he of race-baiting renown, he…

Snippet # 3: The Crock of Red Crockery Edition

  Countdown to launch: 14 days Nerves: Shot Cereal consumed: Two bowls Cereal I wanted: Entire box   From Chapter 13   The rough-splintered table was either raw wood or the finish had been worn away during the last century. The jagged edges of the brown earthenware dishes appeared gnawed. Alice suspected rats. Daphne guessed…

WAISTED Snippet: Second in the Scale Series

The above snippet is carved from Chapter 30. Days till launch: 15. Chocolate eaten today? Just a few.  3 squares Dark Lindt Sea Salt But the day is young.   Daphne snuck up on the scale as if approaching it slowly would trick the machine. “Weigh yourself every day.” Alice offered the advice as though…

Countdown to Book Launch: Daily Snippets (Day 16)

Launch day draws close. I’m feeling the combination of horror that it actually approaches, hope that it’s liked, terror that it’s . . . .never mind. In honor of my grandmother I now say (and write)  “poo-poo-poo,” while I hold two fingers to my lips—simulated spitting to ward off the evil eye. Hoping to engage…

Slipping. Sliding. All but Vanished.

  by Sahar Abdulaziz I stand, transfixed, staring into the mirror at a face I no longer recognize, at a body that has housed my soul for fifty-plus years, birthed healthy children, sustained me through illness and healed me from falls, and yet, here we are, she and I, practically strangers — adversaries for most…

ECHO (from Women Under Scrutiny)

  by Lauren J. Sharkey It started small—having to catch my breath after going up the stairs, needing to recline my car seat back an inch…going up a size. “You might want to take some weight off,” said my general practitioner during my annual, never once lifting his eyes from the clipboard. I looked down…

CONFESSIONAL: “Will-power is a fable that thin people tell.”

  By Stephanie English I stopped believing in God when I was stick-thin, and have been tempted to reconsider since ballooning to twice my size. The God I hear about has an appetite for vengeance, and it seems He hungered for a chance to punish a skinny woman who loathed fat people by making her…